Juan Cheng Pi Xian Chilli Bean Paste (Dou Ban) 227g

Perfect Doubanjiang for my Chinese Sichuan/Spicy recipes: spicy, warm and tangy flavour. It took me a while to find it as actual Pixian paste is hard to come by in city store. But this one is just perfect, will definitively keep on buying it!

Great product speedy delivery

I've never had this before, so can't compare the quality. But I wanted to try this, thinking to ferment my own chilli in the future. The heat is moderate for a chilli, perhaps a third of an encona sauce heat. The taste is incredibly strong. Super salty. A different flavour, but it reminds me of curry house lime pickle for the intensity and vibe of it.

If you are the sort of person who strides into an Indian restaurant and demands the hottest curry on the menu then this paste should be right up your alley! I had a recipe for Ma Po which called for four tablespoons of the paste. I took a tiny taste of it as I was adding to the pan and promptly fished two tablespoons out! Even with around two tablespoons this was still fiery hot for my palate. Worse than the extreme heat, though, was the extreme saltiness - if you are on any kind of a low-salt regime then look away now!The aspect that really disappointed me with this paste, however, was that it is full of tough, inedible pieces (most of which I took to be bean skins but there are some other tough, chewy pieces which I couldn't identify). Having munched my way through the initial blast of heat and salt I then found myself having to spit out bits of tough skin. Not my cup of chilli, I'm afraid, but maybe the Ma Po aficianadoes would disagree!

Finding a doubanjiang without preservatives proved near-impossible, so I'm happy with this. It tastes good, too and gives a nice savoury zing to ma po tofu.

Bought for a very specific recipe. Recipe was very tasty.